Episode 3

Putting connection first in your online business

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Join me in this episode as we explore the vital role of connection in building a successful online business. We discuss the common pitfalls of creating products or services in isolation and the frustration that often follows when they don't gain the traction we hoped for.

By focusing on understanding the needs and problems of our audience, we can instead use our time and energy to build genuine connections through community spaces, books, or podcasts. This shift from simply developing solutions to truly co-creating offerings with our audience is key to achieving sustainable success.

In addition, I highlight the importance of authenticity and trust in building meaningful business relationships that are based on openness and honesty. Stay tuned for next week's discussion where I’ll be talking about creating offers with ease.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

00:02 - Debbie (Host)

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Beyond Business Summer Podcast Series here. Over the course of six main episodes, we'll be challenging the mainstream approach to building a business online and instead creating a regenerative framework inspired by nature that takes your online business from sporadic action to sustainable results. If you would like to use the starter kit that goes along with the series, then head over to www.debbielee.co.uk/starter-kit and download your copy now. That way, you can work along with the episodes week by week and at the end, have a one-page framework that gives your business the springboard that you need to take action in a way that feels good and gets results. Hello and welcome to episode three of the Beyond Business summer podcast series.

01:08

Episode three of the Beyond Business summer podcast series. This week we are talking all about putting connection first and using connection as the starting point of taking action. In last week's episode we looked at what it means to put purpose at the heart of everything that we do, and while I firmly believe that that forms really solid foundations, that feeling of wanting to do good in the world and knowing what that means to you is only part of the equation. It's sort of all the stuff that lives on the inside and is super important and can be a real motivator to take action. But when it comes to knowing what we actually want to do and what we want to prioritise, then sometimes that can be a tricky thing, and I think that if your work involves helping other people in some capacity, then you really need to get well practiced, I guess, at connecting with those people in order to actually make a difference and make an impact in a way that feels good for them and is sort of on the right page for them as well. And I think throughout this episode, we're looking at this idea of challenging the traditional narrative to business, and I think that another aspect of this is that we, when we think of doing, we often think of creating and having a very tangible output or something to show for our efforts.

02:46

I know that that is always a big draw and a big appeal to me to squirrel away at something and have something to show for it at the end, and so I think that what often happens is that we focus so intently on this desire to do good that we pour our time and energy and effort into creating something so creating an amazing new product or a service, but we do that in isolation because we're using that as the starting point and so often what I've seen so many times and what I've experienced so many times is that when this is the case, when we're creating something in isolation, when we go and release it to the world and present it to the world in some way, it it's often a flop or maybe even worse. We don't even know what it's a flop. It just receives no reaction, like no attention, nothing, and it's so disheartening. I would say that I, like in my own experience, I've, in those early days, when I just didn't expect this outcome at all, it felt really confusing and slightly heartbreaking, and what happened then was I spiralled, of course, into doubting everything, including why I even started the business in the first place, and in the beginning for me it felt like a place where I was very alone. I felt like very inward and quite self-critical actually, and then, the more that I've slowly started to share that with others, I recognise that actually it's a really common experience, certainly early on, but even later on, in our business as well.

04:36

This trying and things not going to plan is just part of the process of being an entrepreneur. But, yeah, if we don't know any different, then what we tend to do is, even when the thing flops, we go back and we tweak it. So we think, oh, it must be the price, or that's very typical, I'll go back and change the price, or I'll make it free, or I'll I don't know, I'll make up a payment plan or something like that, or we just start from scratch and design something new all over again using the same approach, and that rarely works either. And so, yeah, it feels like all of this time and energy and effort has been spent in vain, when you know it hasn't. We always learn something and there's always something to take, but it's just so. It's such a disheartening place to be. I really get it.

05:32

And so I think that the switch that we can make here is, rather than putting all of our focus onto the solution that we're creating and the thing that we want to get out into the world, we turn that around and really focus on the problem that we're solving and the people that we're solving it for, and this is where it comes back to putting connection first, and so, when you're thinking of the people that you want to support it, it can be those people as individuals, but it also can be connecting with community spaces where they hang out, or reading books that further your understanding and further your learning, or listening to podcasts. It can take so many different forms. So when we talk about connection, connection can look like many different forms. So when we talk about connection, connection can look like many different ways. But I guess the overall aim of it is to find out more about the people that you want to help, even if there's someone exactly like you, um, because, yeah, like I imagine, most of us work from or we create something based on our own experience and the thing that we would have liked to have helped us at the time, um, but that's not to say that that your clients will be like have exactly the same approach or um things. I think that's maybe the main difference. They may not see things in exactly the same way as you do now with the benefit of hindsight.

07:13

So, getting to know the people you want to help, building genuine relationships, having their input into what they might find helpful, what sort of service or product, and making it more of a co-creative project, knowing the best ways to describe it, to price it, to promote it this all feeds into then ultimately like a better product and service at the end, rather than you beavering away on something in isolation and behind the scenes and so, yeah, connection beavering away on something in isolation and behind the scenes and so, yeah, connection like making this switch in theory. When we put it like this, I think that it sounds obvious. In many respects it it seems like a good idea and I know that like it's something that I could really get on board with and at the same time, it can be a hard place to start, because maybe you, yeah, maybe you just don't know, like, how to approach people, and I think that often what makes us shy away is because we, as a business owner, like connecting with people has, even with good intent, it can maybe, like you can maybe have the expectation that there's the the ultimate intent is to get a sale, and I think that this is another part of the mindset shift that we really need to switch off. Um, because this isn't the case at the minute. It is all about building connection and getting to know people and creating the space in that connection for whatever might emerge and evolve, because one potential output is that the group of people that you want to help just aren't, as it's not as you expect and actually it doesn't feel good for whatever multitude of reasons. So it's really yeah. It is as opposed to networking, which has this sort of transaction approach to it. This is about building connection and building your network and building more of that ecosystem style approach.

09:33

So, yeah, if you do want some support or ideas or inspiration with where to get started, here are I've put together five prompts that might help you. I wonder, first of all, who do you know directly? Is that is someone who you think might benefit from your work? How might they describe themselves or identify themselves? Why might they engage with your business? What is it that they're looking for? Where are they hanging out on person or in online? And then, what groups or communities are they already involved with? And once you start to get a little bit clearer on these things, then it can become a way to more actively go out and seek new connections with these people.

10:22

Um, yeah, in a way that really feels authentic and genuine and based on trust and honesty and openness. Um, so if this is something that you would like to take a little bit further, then tune in again next week to find out what the next stage in this process is. This episode is one of a six-part series that I'm releasing over the summer, and it is made to complement a starter kit or a workbook that goes along with it, so if you haven't downloaded yours now, then head over to www.debbielee.co.uk/starter-kit. I would love to see you there. No-transcript.